Public or private market — what's the best investment you've made? How sure were you when you made it that it would pan out as it has? How long did it take to pan out? And have your investments (number of investment, amount per investment) increased or decreased over the last ten years?
I'm neither a VC nor rich, but the best investment I have made in terms of raw return was into myself when I started my computer servicing business with a capital of three hundred bucks right after high school.<p>It is pretty straightforward to reach a six-figure profit in consulting over a couple of years, and I'd be glad if I could just "repeat" this performance with a larger amount of money.<p>An experienced VC once answered my question about why he is flying first class and visiting us lame fucks in a third-tier town in Europe for two days and how he could justify spending so much money on us. He said it doesn't matter if he flies first class or not because if their investments don't work out they run out of money anyways, and if they do work out they make so much money that everything else becomes irrelevant. This put some things in the startup world for me in perspective, and I am trying to be not too harsh and frugal with myself since then.
An apartment building in a gentrifying neighborhood. I was pretty sure it would pan out, since it's within walking distance of a train stop and had attractive early 20th century architecture. It's still panning out, as my equity keeps growing. The mortgage will be paid off in 13 years.<p>I have not been able to buy another income property since then as I had to buy a home for myself in the intervening time.<p>The biggest takeaway from the experience for me is that you should not buy a home for yourself, then rebuild savings for several years and subsequently buy an income property. Buy the income property first, and then let the tenants carry the mortgage. I doubt I would have bought another property if I had bought my home first.
Best investment I have made was investing in sending my younger brother to a 3 month rehab program. I have made business and real estate investments that have paid off well but none can compare to investing in my brother.<p>I was very unsure when I first made it. He is 1 1/2 years clean and doing extremely well. I don't think he would be with us today otherwise so I consider it an investment well made.
I am more curious to know how did this question is in the front page of the website with less than 10 points, in less than 5 minutes of posting, and zero comments (at least by the time I wrote this comment).<p>And just to answer the question, I am not a fan of investments, after three failures during the past years where I lost more than 50% of my money after making the bad decision to buy stock from three banks around seven years ago, then with all my patience I waited and waited to realize that the stock was going down by the hour, after five years I decided that I didn't want to lose more money and sold, and lost exactly 54% of my initial investment.<p>Way to start my adulthood eh? :D
The best investment I made in terms of money? Married my wife. Having a life partner that understands money and makes sure I didn't make stupid money decisions is the best investment. It pays off in so many ways.
Philadelphia 76ers to beat the Chicago Bulls a few years ago in the NBA playoffs. Payout was something like 11-1 and our model had implied probability at something like 45% for Philadelphia.<p>Made like 50k.
I don't remember the exact numbers but in 2013 I bought some tesla calls planning to sell them in a few weeks and hopefully make a few bucks. I forgot to sell them and when the contract expired they were in the money (TSLA had gone up almost 300%). Etrade bought the shares on margin on my behalf, and when I next logged into my account I was first shocked to see I owed Etrade about $16,000 and then amazed to see that I owned about $50k worth of tesla shares (on a maybe $1000 investment, I don't remember what the premiums were at the time).<p>So the short answer to your question is, dumb luck and sheer stupidity.
Best investment (outside of investing in myself) was buying into Ethereum when they first announced it. In the 2-3 years since, that's been up nearly 50x.
401k + boring old index funds. I started putting in as much as I could since my first job out of college. Still not even 35, and have already seen plenty of returns. Will I be the only person in my generation to be able to afford to retire?
Best investment: Started farming just before the commodities boom.<p>Worst investment: Still am farming after the commodities bust. Luckily I enjoy it.
Student loans. Total investment will end up being something like $200k with interest included. Lifetime value added to my income will easily reach $4 million. 20X+ return.
Side projects as an investment of time (and learning). I know this is not really answering the question, but side projects have always gotten me my next job (moreso than any current place of employment) because they are a living portfolio and very easy to point to. In addition to showing I can ship a product. I credit side projects with nearly tripling my salary in just under 5 years.
Index funds, mutual finds, ETFs, ect. Treat stock like vegas money.<p>The problem with stock is that it's very hard to beat the market, unless you work full time at researching what you invest in.<p>Be careful with real estate. What goes up will go down. Don't assume that "real estate always goes up" when no one can afford to buy a normal home with a normal salary.
40€ invested in a bike helmet. I fell head first on a pointy rock wich broke the helmet (almost) open but my head was untouched. I left them a FB message and re-invested in the same model. By any length the best investment in my life. Other than that, continous self - education.
I've made several great investments, including one that is currently paying out over $6,000/mo. However, these payments are made to someone else, because I always, always sell early. The markets are a painful place to come to know oneself.<p>I do have one tried and true piece of advice: invest in index mutual funds over managed ones. Their "average" return routinely outperforms most actively managed mutual funds. Worst case, you haven't paid a lot of management fees to the person who has lost money for you. (This is less true than in the past because traders now arbitrage against index funds. Nimble traders exploit the fact that index funds are mandated to buy certain positions.)<p>Don't use stockbrokers. If they really knew what they claim to know then they'd be fabulously wealthy without your help.<p>Burton Malkiel's Random Walk Down Wall Street is a good read.
Mining bitcoin before it's first big spike to about $30. I remember the most efficient 3d cards were selling at a 50% premium on ebay as they were very difficult to find.<p>This was followed shortly by my worst investment, keeping my bitcoin on mt gox.<p>Anyone involved in the law suit? Any estimates as to how much we can expect?
I turned $1000 into $1800 in 15 min on an Apple WWDC options play. Not only did I make $800 I also learned to never mess with options again.<p>I turned $415k into $530k in 2 years from real estate from an insane booming market. Combine that with Brexit dropping interest rates to make for a rock-bottom refinance, and the mortgage is paid off via rent, so it's a passive income stream that has only expanded on it's profit margin since the refi.<p>I've also had a x10 startup exit but at small money ($3k -> $30k) but I'd consider that a net loss given how much time/reduced salary I put into it.<p>I think the key learning is diversification has won out - for every loss I've ever had, it was hedged against the multiple income/investment vehicles which have put me in the green over the last 7-8 years.
Probably my collection of Magic: The Gathering trading cards, if I were to sell them these days. ;)<p>The best investment that I actually converted to cash was AAPL that I bought in 2009, and sold in 2015.
There are two that immediately come to mind for me. The first, and clear winner, was buying $200 of FB at ~$24, as I was currently running Facebook ads (which ultimately totalled $2M that year) that were wildly successful. It panned out extremely fast, as the rise in stock price had just begun when I purchased. I sold enough to break even when it tripled, sold a bit more around $100, and still have a bit.<p>The other one is somewhat tongue in cheek, but the ultimate ROI was essentially infinity. In 4th grade, I bought a pack of Pokemon cards. I got a Blastoise. I sold it to a classmate for $32. I then bought another pack. It contained a Blastoise.<p>EDIT: To clarify, I purchased that $200 in FB very early in my career, when it was a very major purchase. I own more than the original purchase now, as I bought more later, but I'm speaking solely about the original investment.
><i>what's the best investment you've made?</i><p>Bought stocks in late 2009/early 2010 when everyone said the world was melting down. I think I got into SPY around ~115, and it's almost doubled since. I just wish I had more money at the time; my return isn't so sexy in absolute terms.
Apple in 2005. I was taking an investments class in community college and this was the investment decision I made as part of a homework assignment/project. Of course, sold too early to buy a house and ...
The best investment I ever made was purchasing an old banged up Porsche 911T from a movie studio and keeping it garaged for nearly 13 years. I sold it for nearly 70 times the amount I bought it for.
Bought a two bedroom flat when I was nineteen in a notoriously bad part of town, that was right at the edge of a gentrifying wave (and within walking distance of university). Got a flatmate who paid my whole mortgage and 50% of the bills then sold it when I finished uni for 3x what it cost me after doing minor repairs and a bunch of cosmetic work.
My best investment was buying back shares from our VC investor after a few years, shortly before our startup took off. The investor lost interest in the Internet due to other failed investments (ca. 2002) and I was confident enough to pay off the price of the shares using my salary.
Using my own money to attend conferences when my company didn't have a budget. I think spending money on your education/self improvement is the best thing you can invest in.
My career. Every move to drive my career forward that involved doing things that were hard and scary rather then doing the same thing familiar things indefinitely.